I’m not sure I agree, considering this:
I think she must have been delirious. Under no circumstances, ever, is Kale ever delicious. And she was SO delirious, in fact, she forgot to include the trip to the infirmary.
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I know that no one will believe me, but the Kale salad was really good. I could have eaten buckets. The Kale was massaged with olive oil, lemon, cranberries and was probably the healthiest thing that I ate all week. However, I may not be the best reliable source as I am probably of the 0.000001% that thought that the food at CM was really good!!!
I have edited the TP fail to LINER fail. You are right lol. Glad that you guys are enjoying the reports, the best is yet to come lol
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Oh dear. The delirium is still on-going. Call a doctor immediately. The prognosis doesn’t look good.
(But thanks for the entertaining trip report, nonetheless!)
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I guess it’s like convincing a Vegan that a rare steak is delicious, right? Lol. Glad that you are enjoying the report.
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That is so sweet and cute . . . .
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I love reading your report, and I can’t wait to find out what happened next!
I’m loving your report, thanks for sharing. You’ve left us with a cliff hanger about AK. I need to know what happens 
Your report is great. Thanks
Your trip report is so fun to read!
Your dad is the best with his Mickey ears and sneaking into FEA FP. Thanks for your trip report its very entertaining and informative
Love the trip report! I wonder if you had the same CRT server we had. Ours had a very similar demeanor and also just tossed the wands/swords in the table. By the end of our breakfast, the running joke at our table was how much he despised me and my jokes. 
The food was great but the morale of all of the staff and even characters seemed pretty low.
Oh wow, we most likely had the same server (middle aged guy slightly plump with a mustache, I think). I did notice that the morale was low as well, glad that I wasn’t the only one who noticed that 
I’m glad that you’re enjoying the report. More to come!
Yep…sounds like him!
Day 4- Animal Kingdom Day
So here we are at day 4 (Wednesday) which originally was supposed to be our rest day but now, was our designated Animal Kingdom (AK)day. According to the original TP, we were going to visit AK in two half days (Tuesday and Thursday morning) and I had made our FP’s accordingly. However, as our plans changed, we decided to dedicate only one full morning/lunch to AK and return later that week if we felt like it. As I had let go of some stellar FP’s for AK earlier in the week (sniff, sniff), we were in almost in the same predicament that we faced the day earlier in MK (ie, no fast passes for the holy grail rides and no PPO breakfast). Nonetheless, I did manage to score a 3 person Navi River Journey (NRJ) FP for 9am the night before, and was able to secure FP’s for all 7 of us for Dinosaur and NEMO show for 10-11am and 12:30 respectively. We were also going to (gulp) attempt to RD (a first for our family).
Unfortunately for us, AK added EMH for most of the mornings for our week (staring at 8am). Since The busses came every 20 minutes from the GF and took about another 25 minutes to get to AK, our crew was only able to get there around 8:30am. So much for RD. Once we went through bag check, we headed straight for Pandora.
Pandora wasn’t extremely crowded at this point but the lines for NRJ and FOP were already over 60 minutes long (and growing every minute). Since we only had a 3 person FP for NRJ, we decided that I would accompany my parents and the rest of the gang would hang out nearby until we were done. This proved to be a great decision because NRJ is the perfect ‘senior ride’. It’s super slow and very scenic. We actually got a super special treat as our normal ‘5 minute ride’ turned into 15 as theboats kept experiencing delays and at one point we were stuck right infront of the Shaman. I heard reports of people describing the Shaman as creepy, and while this may be true, the animatronics were pretty amazing.
After we disembarked, we discovered that the kids had attended a drumming show right infront of NRJ. DS13 was picked to help play an instrument so that was super fun for him. We then headed north of the park to do standby for the safari (KS) and we were pleasantly surprised to see a short line. We only waited about 20 minutes and off we went to see all the animals. Great fun was had by all during the safari, and when it was over, I was soooooo excited for my next FP, and off we headed to…
Dinoland!!! I know, Dinoland doesn’t get much love these days, with it’s cheesy carnival-like theme, but I was really looking forward to riding DINOSAUR. Even though I had a fastpass for all 7 of us, i had read reports of the ride being extremely jerky and scary for young ones, so I had concerns about my mom (with her heart condition) and Coco. However, last minute, we all decided to jump on the ride, and I decided with Chloe that I would just strap her in and deal with the trauma later (I know, mother of the year, right???) I couldn’t enjoy the ride as much as I wanted to as I kept holding on to Coco, praying that the ride didn’t scare the s**t out of her and then afterwards, she the ride was over, we ended up with this gem of a picture:
I love this picture for 2 reasons:
- This picture has my dad taking a picture of Disney taking a picture of him. Old habits never die, I guess.
- Coco is missing from the picture. Uh oh, did the T-REX did have my daughter as a 30lb snack? Not quite. Little one spent 75% of the ride hunched down staring down at her feet, but apparently she still ‘liked the ride’. In her words “it’s okay Mama, when I got scared, I just looked down at my feet”.
Afterwards, we noticed Photopass photographer right outside the ride, and he was able to do some fun magic shots with us:
At this point we were famished, so we ended up mobile ordering from Restaurantsaurus. Food was typical food court fare, nothing to write home about. My parents decided to go back to the GF after lunch and we were off to our final FP of the day, FINDING NEMO show.
And this, is when things start to get interesting.
As soon we the 5 of us swipe in to the FP line of the show around 12:30, I noticed that there was a decent wi-fi connection (extremely rare for in the parks) so I started looking (for fun) for a 4th fastpass for 3 people. I was so used to modifying at this point that it became second nature, and here I am clicking away when all of a sudden I see something that I hadn’t seen in more than 60 days. At first I thought nooooo, this can’t be possible. And then, I thought, omg, is this a mirage???
And as I stared at the screen on my phone, I see that my mind was not playing tricks on me.
The Fast Pass gods shined their good fortune on me, and I had scored a FP for FOP for 3 people for 2:30pm for that day.
I ended up waving the screen like a lunatic at my son and my husband, trying very very hard to contain my excitement while at that exact moment remembering that it was not possible for all 3 of us to go at the same time. So we decided that my husband was going to take the young ones back to the hotel (he didn’t care, he wanted to relax anyways) and just my son and I would go. So, I was about to let one of my FOP fastpasses go on the app when it suddenly occurred to me that I had the chance to be somebody’s FOP fairy godmother. I wanted to TELL THE WORLD that I had an extra FP that I was ready to let go at a ANY second.
But Sadly, I could not tell the world. So I did the next best thing. I shouted out in a very LOUD voice to all the people in my Finding Nemo fast pass line:
“I have exactly one fastpass for Flight of passage for 2:30 today that I am going to let go right now if anyone wants it’.
silence**
**crickets
(I don’t think that these people were liners lol).
They were all looking at me like I had 3 heads, so I just cancelled my husband’s FP and hoped that someone would take advantage of it. In the meantime, the Finding Nemo show was cancelled due to technical difficulties, so we bid farewell to my better half and the young ones while DD13 and I had 90 minutes to explore the rest of AK before our FOP fastpass.
My son was super stoked to go on FOP, but in my excitement I forgot about a minor detail that could derail my enjoyment for this ride: I get major motion sickness. However, like a good Boy Scout, I always come prepared and thankfully clutched my bottle of chewable Pepto Bismol, that is forever staple in my purse. Yes, I know that Pepto is not traditionally used as a ‘Motion sickness remedy’, however, it does a really good job at preventing disastrous stomach issues (sorry, TMI) and does not knock me out. I take it on flights, before interviews, and any anxiety inducing situations (like the one at hand). Skills for life, just saying. So I pop 2 of these babies, and my son and I have some time to kill before the FP, so we wander around Asia and take more pics:
And then, it was game time. We made our way back to Pandora, and happily swiped out magic bands before starting the trek up the mountain. I started regretting having the Mickey bar an hour ago as I could feel it sloshing in my stomach. The funny thing, is that at one checkpoint in the FP queue, they hand you this card that states that if you suffer from motion sickness, you should NOT go on the ride. Of course I ignored it, then as soon as we passed the chicken exit I knew that there was no turning back. I could see the look of excitement in my son’s eyes of being able to go on the ride with me and I knew that I couldn’t let him down. So I start asking everyone around me if the ride was intense, and was met with tons of reassurance. We even had seniors infront of us in line who were seasoned pros at this ride so I knew that I shouldn’t have anything to worry about.
Then it was time for the pre-show. I cheated a while ago and actually watched the whole ride that someone filmed kinda sideways on YouTube. So I knew to expect the bad acting (uh, uh) and spoiler alert* we are all told that we have parasites. I had to bite my tongue really hard to not respond with ‘oh no, is that like having an STD’ (I know, I’m so mature right?). So we take care of the parasites and not long after we’re ushered into a cabin with a motorcycle like contraption. No turning back now. And then, it begins. Here weeeeee ggggggooooooooo…
So exactly 4 minutes later, it’s over. Thank God, I survived. Yes, it was a bit intense and yes there were moments where my stomach did do a little turn here and there but I didn’t throw up, pass out or crap my pants. And then, I remembered, my son. My son also suffers from motion sickness and is the reason why I have several giant ziploc bags in the back seat of our car for those ‘uh mom, I don’t feel good moments’. In my own self-absorption I didn’t even take account how this ride would affect my him. Hell, I didn’t even offer my own kid a pepto bismol. So I slowly turn to my left, and was met with the biggest smile I had ever seen from my son. He’s like ‘ moooommmm, that was the best ride ever. OMG, that was so awesome’. And just like that, it was all so worth it. I had jelly legs and a headache, but we (slowly) made it to the exit of the park and successfully made it back to GF.
**** if you suffer from motion sickness, I would recommend riding this ride at night, so that if you do get any symptoms, you can just head back to the resort to sleep it off. It was a really good ride though, worth the hype, and halfway through you do get a few seconds of break from al, the motion to recoup if needed).******
Upon return to the resort, I realized that we had only 90 minutes until our reservation for CG at 5:10, our only signature dining experience of the trip. It was also the one night that we would dine in semi-peace as we intended to drop our 2/3 of our kids in the newly opened Pixar Zone in the Contemporary hotel. However, I was exhausted from our AK journey, still had a headache and didn’t want to pass out on top of my $50 fillet. Luckily, I was able to modify our dining reservation to another day through the App, and was also able to make a last minute reservation at 1900 PF for 7:30 that night.
Honestly, I wasn’t really excited for yet another character meal (this would be our 3rd time seeing Cinderella in 4 days lol) but the restaurant was steps away from our room and i wanted at least one meal with a Prince (so that we could do pictures like this):
And of course, the Tremaine sisters are always fun:
Overall, a good experience. The buffet was okay, typical American buffet fare, but of all things, they have the most amazing butter chicken that my husband kept raving about. The characters were fun, exactly what you would expect. Definitely a good use of 1 dining credit. After dinner, they take you to the back where a photopass photographer is waiting to take a picture of your family (sadly, no characters but a nice painted backdrop of the castle).
Up next, our Hollywood studio day. Which character legit threatened my mom? And will meeting Chewbecca scare off my daughter off hairy men forever???
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Your STD comment made me actually LOL. Cute pics from 1900!
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I love this so much… that IS the way to do it!
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Your dad is so meta! Great trip report thanks.
When we went with my dd in 2013, we were in the same boat with her size. She was just big enough to ride it all, and we threw her on everything. Some she shockingly loved (ToT) and others she hated (RRC) and some she tucked her head and completely checked out, but at least she earned bragging rights when we got back home! lol!